Kindergarten Gems
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
KINDERGARTEN GEMS KINDERGARTEN GEMS A COLLECTION OF STORIES AND RHYMES FOR LITTLE FOLKS BY AGNES TAYLOR KETCHUM AND IDA M. JORGENSEN YESTERDAY’S CLASSICS CHAPEL HILL, NORTH CAROLINA Cover and arrangement © 2008 Yesterday’s Classics, LLC. Th is edition, fi rst published in 2008 by Yesterday’s Classics, an imprint of Yesterday’s Classics, LLC, is an unabridged republication of the work originally published by Christian Publishing Company in 1890. For the complete listing of the books that are published by Yesterday’s Classics, please visit www.yesterdaysclassics.com. Yesterday’s Classics is the publishing arm of the Baldwin Online Children’s Literature Project which presents the complete text of hundreds of classic books for children at www.mainlesson.com. ISBN-10: 1-59915-247-9 ISBN-13: 978-1-59915-247-9 Yesterday’s Classics, LLC PO Box 3418 Chapel Hill, NC 27515 PREFACE IN response to a demand for stories and rhymes, adapted to the Kindergarten and home, this collection has been made. It includes typical stories of all classes—Fairy tales, Nature stories, and those emphasizing particular virtues. Th e fairy tales have become immortal by their antiquity; no age or country can claim them as their own. Th ey are a part of all ages and times; they seem to have no known origin and while man exists, the truths foreshadowed through them remain the same. We return grateful acknowledgment to “Th e Century Co.” for permission to use, “Th e Adopted Chicken” (Yellow Foot); to “Th e Youth’s Companion,” for “How Two Looked at a Shower,” and to the Kindergarten Magazine for “Who Likes the Rain.” To Mrs. Isabel McCulloch we owe thanks for the following rhymes, “Pitter-Patter,” “Robin Red Breast and Merry Brown Th rush,” “Autumn Talk,” “A Greeting to Santa Claus,” “Snow Bird,” “Froebel’s Birthday Song,” “Children and the Moon,” and “Good-Bye.” Th anks to Miss Ida Richeson for “Song of the Seasons” and “A Crown of Froebel’s Jewels;” to Miss Louise Miller for “Th e Th ree Brothers,” and “Happy Children;” to Miss Nellie Flynn for the story, “Friedrich Froebel;” to Laura E. Toms, for “Bab’s Th anksgiving,” and to Miss M. E. Meisinger for “Singer’s Lesson.” We have included in this collection a number of stories originally selected by Miss Susan E. Blow, for the St. Louis Kindergartens. We apologize for using any story or rhyme with- out the consent of the Author or Publisher, but found it impossible to fi nd out to whom, or where to write for same. If there has been any infringement it is wholly unintentional. Respectfully, Agnes Taylor Ketchum. Ida M. Jorgensen. St. Louis, Mo. INTRODUCTION “LET us learn from our children, let us give heed to the gentle admonition of their life, to the silent demands of their minds. “One of the most diffi cult tasks is the art of tell- ing stories, and yet one of the most important arts the parent and educator should strive to possess; for have we not seen and heard children asking again and again, to have the simplest story repeated, by the one who has proved his art. ‘I have told it two or three times’—‘that makes no diff erence, tell it again.’ He obeys; see how eagerly his hearers note every word. “Th e power that has scarcely germinated in the child’s mind, is seen by him in the legend or tale, a perfect plant, fi lled with the most delicious blossoms and fruits. Th e very remoteness of the comparison with his own vague hopes, expands heart and soul, strengthens the mind, unfolds life in freedom and power. “Th is is the chief reason why children are so fond of stories—the more so, when these are told as having actually occurred, or as lying within the reach of probability, for which, however, there are scarcely any limits for a child. If the story concerns other men, other circumstances, other times and places, nay, if it impart a language to the silent objects in nature, the hearer seeks his own image, he beholds it, and no one knows that he sees it. “As in colors, it is not variegated hues that charm the child, but their deeper, invisible, spiritual meaning; so he is attracted to the legend and fairy tale, not by the varied and gay shapes that move about in them, but by their spiritual life, which furnishes him with a measure for his own life and spirit, by the fact that they furnish him direct intuition of free life, of a force spontaneously active in accordance with its own law. “Th e desire for special stories will then very clearly reveal to the observer what is going on in the innermost mind of the child, though doubtless the latter may not be himself conscious of it. Whatever he feels in his heart, whatever lives in his soul, whatever he cannot express in his own words, he would fain have others express. “Th erefore ear and heart open to the genuine story-teller, as the blossoms open to the sun of spring, and to the vernal rain. Mind breathes mind; power feels power and absorbs it, as it were. Th e telling of stories refreshes the mind as a bath refreshes the body; it gives exercise to the intellect and its powers; it tests the judgment and the feelings. “With high esteem and full of respect, I greet a genuine story-teller; with intense gratitude I grasp him by the hand. However, better greeting than mine is his lot; behold the joyful faces, the sparkling eyes, the merry shouts that welcome him; see the blooming circle of delighted children crowd around him, like a wreath of fresh fl owers, and branches, around the bard of joy and delight.”—Froebel. “Children possess an unestimated sensibility to whatever is deep or high, in imagination or feeling, so long as it is simple likewise. It is only the artifi cial and the complex that bewilders them.”—Hawthorne. “Imaginative minds cling to their images and do not wish them rashly rendered into prose reality, as children resent your showing them that their doll Cinderella is nothing but pine wood and rags; and my young scholar does not wish to know what the leopard, the wolf or Lucia signifi es in Dante’s Inferno, but prefers to keep their veil on.”—Emerson. “But of all the changes taking place, the most signifi cant is the growing desire to make the acquirement of knowledge pleasurable rather than painful—a desire based on the more or less distinct perception that at each age the intellectual action which a child likes is a healthful one for it; and conversely. Th ere is a spreading opinion that the rise of an appetite for any kind of knowledge implies that the unfolding mind has become fi t to assimilate it, and needs it for the purposes of growth; and that on the other hand, the disgust felt towards any kind of knowledge is a sign either that it is prematurely presented, or that it is presented in an indigestible form. Hence the eff orts to make early education amusing, and all education interesting. Hence the lectures on the value of play. Hence the defense of nursery rhymes and fairy tales.”—Herbert Spencer. CONTENTS Prayer . .1 The Shower of Gold . .2 The Story of the New Year . .4 Seasons . .10 Fingers . .11 Little Sister and Brother . .17 Blue-Bird . .25 The Fairy in the Mirror . .26 Politeness . .28 The Peaches . .29 Learn to Wait . .31 For Lunch . .33 Wise Snow-Drop and Silly Billy . .34 Willie and the Oriole . .36 Cinderella . .39 Adventures . .45 Pitter-Patter . .50 Story of Tip Top . .51 What a Bird Taught . .57 The Nest of Gold . .59 The Robin and Turtle . .61 Robin Red-Breast and Merry Brown Thrush . .64 Amy Stuart . .66 Good Night . .71 Sleep, Baby, Sleep! . .72 Happy Children . .73 Goldenlocks . .76 Little Birdie . .85 The Three Bears . .86 Thumbling . .91 The Nest on Wheels . .94 The Potato Child . .98 Autumn Talk . 101 The Nut Gatherers . 103 Thanksgiving Day in the Olden Time . 105 Bab’s Thanksgiving . 108 The Crippled Sparrow . 115 The Elves and the Shoemaker . 116 Mark Ridley . 119 Thistlefinch . 121 Raindrops . 122 The Discontented Tree . 123 Foolish Wishes . 128 Little Millie . 130 Dummling and the Toad . 136 Chippy’s Visit to the Kindergarten . 140 Jack and the Bean-Stalk . 145 Patience . 156 The Sunbeams . 157 Little Red Riding-Hood . 160 Wind and Sun . 166 Father Time . 167 The Seasons . 168 Song of the Seasons . 170 North Wind . 172 The Leaves and the Wind . 174 Greeting to Parents . 176 Letter to Santa Claus . 178 Jolly Old Man . 180 A Greeting to Santa Claus . 181 Baby . 182 Christmas Chimes . 183 The Pine Tree . 184 Snow Bird . 190 The Storks . 191 Birds and Their Nests . 198 The Nest in the Mail Box . 202 Who Likes The Rain? . 205 How Two Looked at a Shower . 206 Lily White Lily . 210 Sparrows . 211 Singer’s Lesson . 213 Yellow Foot . 220 The Birthday Present . 224 Clouds and Sunshine . 226 George Washington . 227 Mrs. Washington’s Horses . 229 George Washington’s Rules . 231 Solomon, the Camel . 232 Susy’s Dream . 238 A Baby Lay . 242 Grass Princess . 244 The Echo . 246 What the Brook Said. 247 Hymn . 248 Butterflies . 249 Wheat Talk . 251 Charlotte and the Ten Dwarfs . 252 The Grist Mill . 256 The Saw-Mill . 258 Marching . ..